'Transcendence' Trailer: Kinda Like 'Lawnmower Man,' But Not Terrible

The latest marketing push for Transcendence, the directorial debut of longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister, ramps things up a bit, laying out the plot for the Johnny Depp-starring techno-thriller (note: the only thing more 1990s than referencing the film The Lawnmower Man in our headline is to use the phrase “techno-thriller”).

In the trailer and the film, Johnny Depp is presented as Dr. Will Caster, the most brilliant mind in the field of artificial intelligence. Caster is hard at work developing an A.I. comprised of the entirety of human intelligence, experience, culture, and emotion. And because this is a movie, something goes terribly wrong. In the case of Transcendence, an anti-technology band of extremists assassinate Caster, forcing his wife and research team to somehow insert or recreate his mind inside the A.I. And, again, because this is a movie, it gets a more than a little wacky, with Morgan Freeman intoning that Caster will bring about “the end of mankind as we know it.” Because of course:

Not bad, though it does feel a little by-the-numbers in terms of the “A.I. goes terribly wrong and threatens mankind” storyline. Oh well, we’re still curious. Transcendence is set for an April 17 release date.